Highland Moon Sifter (a Highland Sorcery novel) (16 page)
Read Highland Moon Sifter (a Highland Sorcery novel) Online
Authors: Clover Autrey
Behind her, Shaw reached around to take it and bunched it to pull over her head. Bekah might be too angry to care about standing there naked, but Shaw cared for her.
As Shaw’s concentration left the humming rift, it swirled out of existence, pulling at Alexander’s stomach with the same sensation as falling off a building.
Behind them, Roque’s cultured English lilt barked at the soldiers. “Shirts. Now.” He extended his arm back expecting to be obeyed.
A wave of nostalgia tugged within Alexander’s chest. His kin did not know him, but he remembered them all, had missed them keenly. At this point in their lives though, they would not have experienced their time together yet.
His hold-out soldiers looked to him, only taking off their shirts when he gave them a nod. These men were brave, good fighting men who had survived where most hadn’t, and seen horrors no one should have to, yet he couldn’t help wondering what they’d think if they knew they were feet away from a vampire who could change into a dragon at whim. Then there was Col…
He’d have to ease his men into this new age he was bringing about of magic verses monsters. Magic and science.
Once her own borrowed shirt was buttoned, Aunt Lenore came to him, taking his hands in hers, eyes shining. “You look like your dad.”
Alexander jolted at that, his heart clenching more than it should at the absence of his parents. He’d known they wouldn’t be among his uncles and aunts when they arrived. They never would have left him—his infant self—in the past. Nor would they have brought him here to this mess of a future.
“Alexander?” Lenore squeezed his hands. “What you sent Bekah back to do, to stop Shaw, it didn’t work. He didn’t create the monster, he couldn’t have…yet the Sifts are still here. We know because our timeline didn’t change, the Sifts still came to Seattle…” She looked back at Col and Alexander felt the unspoken “thank the gods” behind her look. If Bekah had succeeded in killing Shaw, everything would have changed for all of them. None of them would have found each other, his parents included. Tiny lines formed between Lenore’s velvet eyes. “When our timeline remained the same, we knew the Sifts still must have destroyed most of the human race in this time. We came to help.”
He smiled down at her. “I know. I always knew Bekah wouldn’t kill Shaw. That was never the plan. Or the solution.”
“But I…” Shaw’s frown creased his forehead. “I didna create the Sifts. I never…”
“Not physically.” Alexander took pity on him. This would not be easy to hear. “Your magic…”
Shaw jerked. His eyes squeezed shut as he put it all together. “The babe Aldreth stole. I gave Aldreth my magic.” He scraped a hand down his face. “I had wondered…”
“It was the first Sift.”
Bekah slipped her hand into Shaw’s, her fingers grazing the shirt he had looped around his waist to hang over his hips, a silent display of support he’d witnessed countless times between them before. Seeing them like this was like looking into his past childhood. There’d been so many times when he’d first met Bekah here in this time, he wanted to tell her the truth of everything, but he couldn’t risk her foreknowledge changing everything, changing the way she felt about Shaw.
“What do we do now?” Uncle Col, always cutting to the fore of the matter and ready to take the challenge head on.
“We do what we can to rid the monsters in this time. In this now,” Edeen said and Alexander could have wept at her fierceness.
“I can unmake them.” Alexander crossed his arms over his chest and every eye shifted to him. “It’s why I sent Bekah in the first place. I needed her to bring Shaw to me.”
Bekah’s hands fisted on her hips. If she had magic, he’d be a burning husk by now. “You knew I’d bring Shaw here?”
“Of course. You told me you would. Or…you will tell me.”
That had her eyebrows peaking.
Alexander hurried on. “I’ve created a substance that can change the Sift’s DNA. No more time traveling or magic for them. It will take all of that ability from them. It will also make them sick, weak, easier to kill. I’ve been waiting on one final ingredient. Shaw’s blood, a bit of his magic, and—“
Shaw’s lips curled into a ruthless eager grin. “Then, nephew, let us finish this.”
And for the first time since he’d jumped to this century, hope that this really could work relaxed Alexander’s shoulders.
~~~
Bekah had her pants rolled up, her toes curled in the wet sand as the tide carried the cold ocean around her ankles.
The pulsar felt good in her hip holster, right, the weight of it familiar, as she kept her back to the ocean to watch the man on the beach, his face tilted upward toward the tufts of moon glow dancing around him, absorbing into glistening skin. She’d never tire of seeing him like this.
The man she’d intended to kill for destroying most of humankind was the final piece that would save them.
“I love you, you know that right?”
His eyes slid open, the shiny silver gray focusing on her and his hand stretched out.
“Aye,
fear-dìon.
“
She went to him and found herself lifted into his embrace and her mouth promptly devoured.
Icy moonbeams sizzled along her skin, sprouting goose bumps from the vibration of magic sifting into Shaw. His lips were firm and demanding…teasing.
When she was breathless, he set her down without releasing his hold. She rested her cheek over his heart, savoring the strong rhythm of it.
“Will this work, Bekah? What my nephew proposes?”
If they could get the potion close enough. That’d be the tricky part. “Alexander is as proud and stubborn as all of the rest of his Highland kin.” She poked his chest. “So he won’t give up. If he believes it will work, it will work.”
He stared down into her eyes, his gaze measuring the certainty she had in Alexander, then seemingly satisfied, his grin turned wicked.
“Aye, then. We will do what we must. Rid the world of monsters, then set about rebuilding our clan.”
Aye
, Bekah thought.
Dia,
she loved him. And rebuilding the clan? That would be the fun part.
The End
The adventure continues with a new generation of Highland magic wielders, beginning with Alexander doing his best to rid the future of Sifts.
But first, look for a short special holiday treat with a glimpse into Alexander’s childhood with his uncles and aunts in
A Highland Sorcery Christmas
. November 2013.
~~~
Also available for your Kindle
: Death and Kisses
by Clover Autrey
~Great Expectations Finalist 2012~
My only thought was for Aden. I ran to him, kicking up water and called out his name. He turned and my heart skidded, crumbled and dropped to my feet.
Not Aden, but Brad. Then where was . . .?
I looked down to where Brad’s gaze had been focused, down, down, in the murky water towards the center of the pond. No. Noooo! I shouldn’t be able to see him through the stirred-up sediment, but I did. Pascual was drowning Aden just as he had drowned Brad.
